Open front belt construction



Feb. 2, 1960 R. R. BORZONE 4 OPEN FRONT BELT CONSTRUCTION Filed Sept. 12, 1955 INVENTOR 130cm K501" one B TTORNEY Unite Safes atefit The present invention relates to an open front belt construction and it particularly relates to a novel belt that may be utilized by both sexes and by adults as well as children to give a decorative effect to trousers, skirts, slacks or shorts.

Although the present invention will be described particularly in its application to a belt having'an open front construction, it is to be understood that it also has a broader application to belts of interrupted design or construction in which there will be provided spaces at the front, back or sides of the belt giving the belt'a'n interrupted or discontinuous effect or appearance.

. It is among the objects of the present invention toprovide a novel, inexpensive, readily manufactured and readily utilized inexpensive belt construction'which will have an interrupted or discontinuous appearance and which will give a decorative and 'novel appearance to a belt suspension for trousers, skirts or slacks and which may be used by adults of either sex or by children.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel discontinuous or interrupted belt construction which will have a novel eifect and which will'function to support a lower garment while enhancing the appearance of the waist line.

Still further objects and advantages will appear in the more detailed description set forth below, it being understood, however, that this more detailed description is given by way of illustration and explanation only and not by way of limitation, since various changes therein may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

In accomplishing the above objects it has been found most satisfactory according to one embodiment of the present invention to provide a discontinuous or interrupted belt construction in which there are one or more facing portions which are exteriorly exposed around the waist line of the wearer with a plurality of additional connecting elements which are concealed or positioned inside of the suspended garment.

This will give an effect of a discontinuous or interrupted belt of unusual decorative effect.

In one preferred form of the present invention the outside belt sections which may be two, three or four in number are joined desirably at the rear by a buckle or snap fastener.

Their intermediate interrupted portions are connected by relatively rigid metal, plastic or even leather or fabric connector strips or bars which are riveted, screwed or otherwise connected to the ends of the belt sections and which have U-shaped extensions which fit upon the upper edge of the lower garment and fit inside of the upper edge of the lower garment and are concealed thereby.

Desirably, the interrupted sections should be at the front or sides of the lower garment where they are most readily observed for the decorative or unusual effect.

These insert or connector pieces, whether they be of plastic, metal, leather or hard rubber, should be relatively 2 rigid and shaped arcuately so as to conform to the curvature of the bodily shape.

In a preferred form where they are formed of a noncorrosive metal such as stainless steel or aluminum, a very thin bar or strip may be employed for the. connector purposes,

With the foregoing and other objects in View, the invention consists of the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts as hereinafter more specifically described, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein is shown an embodiment of the invention, but it is to be understood thatchanges, variations and modifications can be resorted to which fall within the scope of the claims hereunto appended.

In the drawings wherein like reference characters denote corresponding parts throughout the several views:

Fig. '1 is a front perspective view showing one form of interrupted or discontinuous belt with a rear buckle.

Fig."2 is a transverse vertical sectional view upon the line "2-2 of Fig. 1 upon an enlarged scale as compared to Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a side perspective view of a typical connector element which may be used in the structure of Fig. 1.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the belt is shown as having two sections A and B which extend around the exterior of the upper edge of the lower garment G.

It is of course obvious that there can be any number of sections A and B and the number may be increased to four or six. It will be noted that sections A and B are connected at the rear by the buckle C and at the front by the connector D. l I

The connector D has two loops E which fit over the edge of the lower garment G. These 'loops'E, or U- shaped'connectors B, have fastening connections F to the ends 10 and 11 of the belt'sections A and B. This connection D may be repeated several times around the periphery of the belt. I

The other ends A and B of the belt are connected by the buckle C with the end 12 extending through the openings 13 of the buckle, and the end 14 encircling the cross member and being riveted in position at 16.

As shown in Fig. 3, the connection D has a main concealed bar or strip 25 with the end portions 26 which have a top turned over portion 28 and rear attachment plates 27. The plates 26 and the strip 25 will normally fit in concealed position on the inside of the upper edge G of the trousers body.

The open front or discontinuous or interrupted structure may be repeated at intervals around the periphery of the belt and there may be adjustable connections to the ends of the strips D and if desired, the connections F may consist of hooks, snap fasteners or screw eyelets. The important feature of the present invention resides in the fact that the belt is so designed that it appears to have an open space or open spaces along its length so as to break up its look of continuity.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the radius of curvature of the strip D is substantially shorter than the radius of curvature of the belt sections A and B since the strip D is positioned concentrically inside of the curvature or circle of strips A and B by the distance between the elements 26 and 27.

This impression is achieved by having rigid arcuate connector pieces attached to the reverse side of the belt sections at both sides of the open space or spaces which go over and beyond the garment.

The adjustments for fitting the belt to size may be incorporated in the connector pieces or pieces or on the visible portion or portions of the belt.

Having thus described my invention, what I cla m as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

ends of said strip and being spaced apart by said strip,

the other ends of said elements having a connection at a position about 180 away from the strip and diametrically opposite the strip.

2. A complete belt construct-ion having a plurality of exterior belt facing elements adapted to be positioned in a circle, and connector means consisting of an elongated flat metal strip with downwardly projecting parallel terminal leg members to connect said belt elements together, said strip being of an arcuate curved shape to connect the ends of said elements together, said fiat metal strip being concentrically positioned inside of the circle in which the belt facing elemens are positioned and said belt elements terminating at the ends of said metal strip and being permanently attached to the ends of said strip and being spaced apart by said strip, the other ends of said elements having a connection at a position about 180 away from the strip and diametrically opposite the strip.

3. A belt construction consisting of three peripheral arcuate sections forming a complete 360 circular belt, two sections being face sections and having adjacent and separated ends and formed of a belt facing material and having equal radii and being provided at their adjacent ends with belt end connecting means and one section being an arcuate metal strip connecting the separated ends having a radius substantially shorter than the radii of the face sections and being positioned so its upper edge will be substantially below the upper edges of the face sections and at its ends having inverted U-shaped members having inside and outside legs with the outside legs of the U-members being attached to the inside faces of the separated ends and the inside legs,

the top edges of the U-members being at a slightly lower level than the top edges of the face sections.

4. A three section waist encircling belt, each section constituting a minor part of the circumference of the belt, there being two front sections and one rear section, said sections being connected together end to end with the rear section being formed of a relatively rigid arcuate shaped strip and the front sections being formed of flexible strips connected at their adjacent front ends, the ends of the rigid strip being integrally provided with inverted U-shaped apparel engagement portions positioned below the upper edges of the front sections and one of the legs of each U-shaped portion taking the form of a relatively wide rectangular plaque, and rivets connecting said plaques to the inside faces of the rear ends of said front sections.

5. A three section belt construction having three sections connected end to end to form a complete circle, each occupying a minor portion of the entire periphery with two sections being wide outside facing sections and one section being an inside concealed narrow arcuate metal connection strip, said strip having its top edge below the top edges of the wide sections, the connections between the ends of the strip and the adjacent ends of the two wide sections consisting of inverted U cross section channels formed integrally from the ends of the strips, the sides of the channels including plates with said plates being connected to the ends of said wide sections.

6. The construction of claim 5, the top edges of said inverted channels being below the top edges of the wide sections and the strip being inside of but concentric with said wide sections.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 780,751 Heim et al. Jan. 24, 1905 924,011 Sprague June 8, 1909 953,932 Taylor Apr. 5, 1910 1,279,525 Edwards Sept. 24, 1918 1,511,766 Ludwig Oct. 14, 1924 

